PDA

View Full Version : Reduce Nitrate need opinion.


jay2x
10-01-2010, 11:40 PM
Okay, I recently removed my bioballs about a week ago and have LR rubble. I have been battling with the nitrates to go down, I've limited my food.

currently I have 20ppm. my goal is to bring it down to 0ppm as I want to start a reef tank.

tank size 75 gallons
livestock:
foxface, damsels 4, two mandarin goby, 3 clowns, 1 flame hawkfish, 2 (puffers(pearl and star and stripe) will be remove once i get corals)

everything is at 0ppm except 20 nitrates...so annoying, i'm running a sump with refugium with cheato DSB with LR. In another side of my sump there is filter floss, phospate filter floss, LR rubble, and nitrate removal stones...and yes i'm running a 125 gal skimmer.

I know the diatoms bloom i'm having is contributing with the nitrate spikes too. I don't know how to effectively get rid of them, I use PRIME to condition my water. I never had any problems before, but after a major water changes because I moved my tank it has been doing this.

I need effective solutions, product suggestions.. thanks.

reefwars
10-01-2010, 11:52 PM
Your diatoms and nitrates will go diwn in time if you do regular water changes and maintanance. You can still have corals with 20ppm just better for less. To get tozero and stay there you may need to take extra steps , take a look at the nitrate poll thread which was posted last week. My little tank has never hit zero I still have it fully stocked and everything does fine minus a few picky acro's lol:)

jay2x
10-01-2010, 11:57 PM
Your diatoms and nitrates will go diwn in time if you do regular water changes and maintanance. You can still have corals with 20ppm just better for less. To get tozero and stay there you may need to take extra steps , take a look at the nitrate poll thread which was posted last week. My little tank has never hit zero I still have it fully stocked and everything does fine minus a few picky acro's lol:)

hmm..it's just so weird the it has high nitrates...I've reach 0 PPM when I had my 30g tank and it was stable...i guess i'll have to wait and see. do you know any corals that are not too sensitive to nitrates?

frd72
10-02-2010, 03:18 AM
I also have 75g, with 25g sump. What i did last time is almost 75% water change for almost a week until 0, then maintain maybe 10% water change every week. Then i also used NP biopellets. Works for me up to now. i overfeed sometimes, still 0.

ottoman
10-02-2010, 04:50 AM
I run biopellets, Nitrate is near 0. But I found low nitrate is okay, zero may not be good for mixed reef because some corals like higher nitruent. My zoas growth is very very slow, unlike some other reefers.

jay2x
10-02-2010, 05:11 AM
i'll try those methods.

is my light affecting it?? I have Coralife 48" Lunar AquaLight Fixture - 4 x 65W

whatcaneyedo
10-02-2010, 06:21 AM
I've never heard of lighting causing an increase in nitrate. Not directly anyways. Occasionally someones lights blow up or catch on fire or something and kill much of what is in their tanks. Then what dies would breakdown into nitrate but thats a pretty extreme example.

What is your current water change schedule?

What brand/model of skimmer do you actually have? Don't trust what the manufacturer rates them for as they usually exaggerate. A properly matched skimmer should be able to bring your nitrates down to undetectable levels on its own.

jay2x
10-02-2010, 06:26 AM
I've never heard of lighting causing an increase in nitrate. Not directly anyways. Occasionally someones lights blow up or catch on fire or something and kill much of what is in their tanks. Then what dies would breakdown into nitrate but thats a pretty extreme example.

What is your current water change schedule?

What brand/model of skimmer do you actually have? Don't trust what the manufacturer rates them for as they usually exaggerate. A properly matched skimmer should be able to bring your nitrates down to undetectable levels on its own.

coralife skimmer, 25%weekly.

brooksdw
10-02-2010, 06:48 AM
I also had the nagging nitrate problem. could never get it below 10 ppm and then i changed my protein skimmer to a bubble magus.
I had to go buy a new nitrate test kit because i couldnt get a reading with the old kit, well no reading with the new kit.
been at 0 ppm for three months now.

whatcaneyedo
10-02-2010, 01:50 PM
A higher end skimmer could solve your problem. I personally do not like a single coralife product. I've watched the coralife skimmers in action at our LFS and on a friends tank and I'm really not impressed.

reefwars
10-02-2010, 02:57 PM
A higher end skimmer could solve your problem. I personally do not like a single coralife product. I've watched the coralife skimmers in action at our LFS and on a friends tank and I'm really not impressed.

Couldn't agre more I don't think coralife is a good brand, and most manufacterers "exagerate" on the ratings on skimmers:)

Coleus
10-03-2010, 06:29 AM
+1 for biopellets, I have been fighting the nitrate problem until i use biopellets. I tried so many different way such as regular water change, reduce feeding, nitrate reducer chemical, etc .... but nothing works wonder like biopellets. I went from 40ppm to nearly zero now (if my test kit is correct). However, i notice my lps also suffer, they seem to grow slowly. I have to increase feeding now

daniella3d
10-28-2010, 07:42 PM
you use Prime to condition your water??? why? are you using tap water??? if so then stop right now and buy a RO/DI unit because maybe your nitrates are in the tap water and you will never get rid of it if you use water that has nitrates to begin with.

IF you use RO water there is no need to use Prime. There is not even the need to use Prime if you only have nitrates and no toxic ammonia etc.. unless you use tap water of course and you want to dechlorinate the tap water.

If you can find totoka liverock, it is very very porous and I am sure it really help my system keep my nitrates at 0. Also try to get some other micro-algae that grow faster than the cheato. cheato is probably not the best algae to export nitrates. The caulerpa frolifera is growing much faster than cheato and absorb much more nitrates.